Katrina Adams

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT KATRINA ADAMS - PAGE 2

Chris Evert Lloyd has it. So does Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe. Katrina Adams thinks she is starting to discover it. All the great ones have the ability to will themselves to victory when their top stuff isn`t there. Adams thinks that's what got her over the top when she won the girls-18 title in the Seventeen Magazine Tournament of Champions May 11 in Mission Viejo, Calif. She defeated Jennifer Fuchs 7-6, 3-6, 6-1 in the finals. The championship was a big one for Adams, who won her second straight state high school title for Whitney Young last year.

HIGH SCHOOL or pro, it doesn`t matter. Katrina Adams continues to beat all comers. Adams had little trouble in defeating Andrea Holikova of Czechoslovakia 6-4, 6-2 Wednesday in the quarterfinals of the $10,000 United States Tennis Association Women's Circuit of Chicago at the Mid-Town Tennis Club. Adams advanced to Thursday's 11 a.m. semifinal against Isabelle Demongeot of France, a 6-3, 6-0 winner over Helen Kelesi of Canada Wednesday. The Whitney Young senior is blitzing through this tournament with almost the same ease she enjoyed in winning her second straight state title last October.

Whitney Young's Katrina Adams (right) won the girls state tennis singles championships in both 1983 and 1984. She is the only Public League athlete to win a girls tennis individual title, and was the first Public League athlete, male or female, to win a tennis singles title since 1955. Adams went on to play collegiately at Northwestern and is now playing pro tennis.

A woman was stabbed to death early Thursday morning on the West Side, police said. Around 2:40 a.m., police responded to a 911 cell phone call reporting a woman being stabbed in the 4900 block of West North Avenue. The victim, Katrina Adams, 31, of the 600 block of North Ridgeway Avenue was pronounced dead at 3:25 a.m. in Stroger Hospital, officials said.

Natalia Zvereva has played professional tennis all over the world except in her own back yard. Until Tuesday, that is. "I can`t remember being as nervous for a first-round match," the 18-year-old Soviet star said after beating compatriot Aida Khalatyan 6-3, 6-0 in Moscow in the first pro tennis tournament played in the Soviet Union. Only about 1,000 spectators showed up at Moscow's Olympic Stadium. Other first-round winners included Chicagoan Katrina Adams.

Australian Open champion Petr Korda survived a slow start to finally overpower David Prinosil 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (7-2), 6-4 in the ATP Guardian Direct Open in London. Korda, the No. 1 seed from the Czech Republic, lost the first three games of the match and was down 30-0 to the German qualifier before rallying to win the opening set. Third-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia crushed Sweden's Thomas Johansson 6-3, 6-2 to gain the second round. - Serena Williams needed just 44 minutes to polish off Katrina Adams 6-1, 6-2 in a first-round match in the IGA Tennis Classic.

Top-seeded Steffi Graf, playing her first match since winning Wimbledon, beat Katrina Adams 6-4, 6-2 in the $450,000 Acura Classic, setting up a meeting with highly regarded 16-year-old Venus Williams. Graf, who received a first-round bye, said she was hard-pressed to beat Adams, the former Whitney Young star ranked 94th in the world. "I was trying to find my rhythm," Graf said. "The match was a little difficult." Williams, the 192nd-ranked player in just her third tournament of the year, overpowered No. 13 Linda Wild 6-1, 6-2 in a second-round match that lasted just 55 minutes.

It was hardly the sort of setting a defending champion deserved, but Zina Garrison took the court for her first-round match, Monday, in the Virginia Slims of Chicago-a tournament she won last November-at 11:08 p.m. She defeated Mary Pierce of Tampa, 6-4, 6-4, on her second match point and walked off the court to a trickle of applause at precisely 12:37 a.m., Tuesday. One would imagine Garrison, seeded second, will hope for an afternoon match Wednesday. For Pierce, who just turned 15, Tuesday morning's session had to be past her bedtime.

A Chicago woman was stabbed to death early Thursday morning on the West Side, police said. At about 2:40 a.m., police responded to a 911 cell phone call reporting a woman being stabbed in the 4900 block of West North Avenue, Capt. Mark Buslik said. "They found her on the ground, bleeding," Officer Kristina Schuler said. The victim, Katrina Adams, 31, of the 600 block of North Ridgeway Avenue, was pronounced dead at 3:25 a.m. in Stroger Hospital, officials said. Police said the attack may have stemmed from a quarrel with the woman who attacked Adams.

Katrina Adams and Linda Harvey each scored three-set victories Saturday to win titles at the Seventeen Magazine Tournament of Champions. Fifth-seeded Adams of Chicago beat Jennifer Fuchs 7-6, 3-6, 6-1 in the 18-under division. Harvey of Hawthorn Woods captured the 14-under bracket with a 7-6, 3-6, 6-2 decision over Deborah Moringiello. It was the first time Illinois has had two winners in the same year in the tournament, which brings together some of the top girl players in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.